Description

Sometime a little over a decade ago, a young Planeswalker-to-be was given his first arsenal of spells to play with by his older brother. They weren't powerful, or even harmful, but they were varying in color and easy to use. At first, the boy stumbled through casting them and lost countless duels to his older brother and mentor. However, with each defeat, his ability grew and he grasped the depth of his spells more and more.

However, his brother and mentor was not to be everlasting, and when his master passed on, he left in the boy's charge his entire collection of spells that he accumulated over his years of traveling and discovery. Among them, the boy came across the fabled Artifact that he had heard unendingly great things about: Darksteel Colossus. From the day he found the Colossus and onward, he began winning duels and battles with more ease and he became confident in his abilities, venturing out into the world to see what he might bring into his dominion.

Then, during an expedition to the Tolarian Academy, a duel with a student spiraled out of control and after he forced the opposer's spell to go awry, the resulting explosion flung him into a river that ran into the fast time gorge where the Phyrexians once took base. The time currents clawed at his body and soul, trying to tear him apart before he could make it to safety beyond the rifts.

Death before him, his spark ignited and he hurled himself across the Blind Eternities into the shard of Alara known as Esper. Here, he found his Green and Red magic severely stunted, and was forced to recuperate in this foreign plane until he could do that thing again. The Vedelkan and Human Artificers scoffed at his ravings of Red and Green magic, only knowing Black, Blue, and White magic to be true.

During his stay on Esper, he found White's opposition to Black magic to be too weak alone to keep his balance in magic colors, and Black mana took root in his soul. Once he finally could Planeswalk again, he 'walked with Black mana as his guide to Grixis. Now in a new shard, one with Red mana now accessible, the young Planeswalker found his destructive magics empowered and he slaughtered his way through with spells of fire and shadow until he stumbled into Unx and slew the demons there by summoning his prized Artifact, his Colossus. The cost, however, was a now permanent stain of Black mana on his soul, to drain his humanity until he became a merciless killer.

This new land conquered, he gathered power and 'walked out of the death pit and back home in Dominaria, where he might work in isolation and perfect his arts. More and more resources his work required and he wandered to Gaea's Cradle for resources and his harvesting angered the Elvish Planeswalker that resided there.

However, instead of fighting the being before him, he saw a damaged soul, and felt compelled to repair what he could, and offered him a deal: become his pupil and once he could effectively wield White, Green, and Blue magic as he did, the young man could harvest all of the land he wished.

The clever ruse worked, the constant use of White, Green, and Blue magic and the limited exposure to Black and Red magic undid much of the damage caused to his soul by Grixis and took away much of the hold Black and Red mana had over him. Once the conditions were met, however, the Planeswalker no longer held the desire to fuel wicked machinery and desire.

A new Planeswalker, the young man thanked his new mentor and 'walked out to explore new Planes and get back on track to his ultimate goal: the ultimate perfection of the spell arsenal granted to him by his brother.

Now I 'walk the multiverse, conquering and learning everything from the wisest of sages and oldest of lands. Over my adventures, I have gained proficiency in many ways to use the 5 colors of mana, and expanded my arsenal beyond what I could have imagined as a boy. Despite everything I have been through, my artifice remains what I hold closest to heart and it remains the greatest weapon I can wield. Artifice is my blood, and creativity my body through which I wield my power. I will fight as I must to continue my quest into the infinity of magic, never forgetting from where I come.

From all across space and time, I have gathered the greatest Artifacts and lords of metal to form the greatest force of artifice that the multiverse has ever seen. We seek not to dominate the multiverse, but to study it. As the archons of artifice, it is our duty.

Since you've wandered down this far, I may as well go over the deck. If you haven't noticed, the deck is more about using cards I like more than things that win. Any chump can build a Tinker deck. I will go over each card to give you as clear an idea of what I'm shooting for.

Blightsteel Colossus - Big face-stomper. After the first swing, if they haven't dealt with it they're dead. Also he has a way of making people salty.

Sundering Titan - I can make hilarious Attack on Titan references, he hates basic lands, and he's addicted to hopping into my hand and back onto the field by Master Transmuter's effect. Slag you Shocklands. I have your death right here.

Astral Cornucopia - Great for abuse with Charge counters, and it works well with ramping my X spells.

Lux Cannon - I REALLY wanted to use Legacy Weapon in this deck because Weatherlight nearly had me crying when I read the books, but this is the closest I'll get. :(

Mox Opal - Normally, I drop Legendary stuff unless it's really worth only have a single copy because it goes all Dalek on flavor if you have a whole playset in your deck; it's unbelievably tacky. BUT, since I pulled this from a pack my brother bought me for Christmas, I will never let it sit in my binder. It. Will. Always. Be. Used.

Gaea's Cradle - Aside from giving me feels in the books when Urza engages dirtbag mode fighting Mishra, it actually gets more useful as the game drags on. With Golem production, I can do all the spending I need off this one land.

Glimmervoid - Super flexible mana with no drawback. Plus, it's fun to flaunt my playset in the face of the other "Artifact deck" in my group, because he only has one Void.

Tolarian Academy - This was a site of many feels in the books. Also, it's ridiculous mana ramp.

Updates

Like my other favorite decks (Zombies and Black), this one seldom stops evolving from form to form. Additionally, I'll admit I've had the most trouble with my Artifact deck because I've been really trying to run cards in all colors so I am not just trumpeting that I run a 5-color deck when there is literally only 1 card of a particular color. I want it to truly include all colors. So far I've done fairly well-ish. Blue obviously is heavy in the deck, White is doing alright, Red could be better, Green is hanging on, and Black is practically nonexistent.

Actually, hold the phone for a minute.

Lemme back up a bit.

I love my Artifact deck, even though I didn't even build it. It was my first deck. It is my best deck. It's become arguably my most horrifying deck (partially due to Tinker, but Sundering Titan, Blightsteel Colossus, and Master Transmuter didn't help matters). I'm okay with having a really good deck, because as it has happened before, Blightsteel takes an Unmake to the knee, Transmuter gets a Lightning Bolt to the face, etc. and other things turn up that show I obviously am not unstoppable. But I'll admit that it can get incredibly oppressive when I've got a Transmuter whistling the Andy Griffith theme while making herself and other buddies evade removal and you eventually get punted by Blightsteel after I topdeck into Dispatch/Galvanic Blast to Jenga your defenses. No matter what, I'm keeping my 4 Tinkers because I found them and I know deep down that utilizing them would make this deck's creator proud...and because there are pun opportunities, so that will just require an extent of restraint to deal with, and I'm fine with that. It's just that I'm starting to look back to an idea similar to what the deck originally was: a deck running on artifact creatures and utilizing artifacts' activated abilities, similar to an actual machine relying on its parts to function. It'll be a weird deck, but I have a feeling that when all is said and done, it will finally work in a way that doesn't make people rage because I exiled their Avacyn, Angel of Hope for 1 with no drawback. Like the current metamorphosis my Black deck is undergoing (trying to run stuff like Lord of the Pit, mang), I'm trying to make this deck a little nicer in multiplayer so when the gold leather deckbox hits the table, people don't immediately consider sitting the game out. As a Johnny-Timmy-Vorthos, I don't want to crush people's souls.

Okay, NOW we get to the stuff specific to the deck.

I like 5-color stuff. In fact, I love it. So much that my deck for my favorite tribe is 5-color. If you're going to do 5-color, you better swing for the fences with as much stuff from every color that you can, otherwise you bring great shame to your deck, your deck's family, and even their cow. That being said, I haven't done my Artifact deck justice because I have failed to use more Black, and heck, you could even understandably argue that I don't use enough Green, White, and Red...'cause I don't...yet. All that out of the way, I'm going to try my hardest to truly bring a sense of "5-colorness" to my favorite deck.

I hope this makes sense, because I think I'm starting to lose my nuts and bolts here...

I'm not entirely sure where I got the idea from or even when (it could very well have come from me reading the Magic books starting with Invasion and moving onward), but I've fallen in love with the original works of the Mirrodin block, which happens to be the cycle my Artifact deck was born from (Sunburst and Modular). While most Artifact decks anymore shun these little trinkets and relics because they're "not good compared to Master of Etherium, let alone Master Transmuter and Sphinx of the Steel Wind", I have a very special love for these little guys because they have a lot more synergy than the more commonly glorified Artifact Creatures.

To this end, I'm grabbing a handful of the little Arcbounds (who go great with Steel Overseer). They're great for a first turn, make for great Tinker fodder, and they dump their counters onto a successor. Arcbound Worker is neat because he's a solid 1-drop and will make an excellent chump blocker, plus the Modular gives him additional use once the Proliferating begins. Arcbound Stinger, while a 2-drop, has all the power of the Worker, but in the air.

I love the function of Charge Counters in the Mirrodin cycle, especially with things like Clearwater Goblet. A lot of people will say it's a terrible card, and in most situations it completely is. HOWEVER, when you throw Proliferate and Energy Chamber into a deck that plays in an easygoing multiplayer meta, the Goblet will be a waterfall of life gain.

Ion Storm mostly just looks cool. I don't know if I'll actually use it, but it would be cool to have something to do with my Red mana and the +1/+1 counters on things like my Steel Overseers.

So I like to wave around the title of "Five Color Artifacts" like it's my job. Admittedly, I haven't been living up to that title as much as I ought to (using Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker doesn't cut it). Thus, I want to hear about any options in my off colors that would be perceived as "excellent". I'll start with what's on my plate for right now (Galvanic Blast, Etched Monstrosity, etc), but I would also like to know about any obscure spells in any color (hopefully Green/Red) that could greatly improve my Doomsday Machine's performance.

Alright, ladies and gentlemen, after a lot of thinking, I've decided that I'm going to shift into fifth gear and work as many kinks out of my first (and favorite) deck as possible. I'll be making my own edits day-by-day, but I would very much like outside opinions (if you're thinking to tell me to cut Green and Red, I will not because Esper is too boring and this was and has always been a 5-color Artifact deck). The idea is now to trim this into a crushing machine with a returning vengeance. Seriously, I'm only looking to reduce size at this point and slowly weed out the less-than-necessary stuff.

Last update 3 weeks ago

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